


Board of Directors(anvers)

by bathtimefunduck, DontBeJelly, jaguarspot, Jesi_Ki_Kage, NerdsbianHokie, rileynoah, SandstoneSunspear



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Collaboration, F/F, Round Robin, Season 3 Spoilers, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-01
Updated: 2019-02-01
Packaged: 2019-10-20 07:47:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17618369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bathtimefunduck/pseuds/bathtimefunduck, https://archiveofourown.org/users/DontBeJelly/pseuds/DontBeJelly, https://archiveofourown.org/users/jaguarspot/pseuds/jaguarspot, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jesi_Ki_Kage/pseuds/Jesi_Ki_Kage, https://archiveofourown.org/users/NerdsbianHokie/pseuds/NerdsbianHokie, https://archiveofourown.org/users/rileynoah/pseuds/rileynoah, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SandstoneSunspear/pseuds/SandstoneSunspear
Summary: Citizens of the Director Sanvers fandom, I present to you: A Fic War. Many moons ago, Jaguarspot issued a challenge based on a tumblr post:Write a chapter that naturally progresses from the previous one, except in a different genre.Six of us accepted that challenge.Your mission, dear readers, should you choose to accept it: guess who wrote each chapter. You will be rewarded with a ficlet by that author should you guess correctly!





	1. Soulmates

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment on each chapter, as it was written by a different person.  
> If you can't think of anything to say, a simple emoji or "Kudos!" will be appreciated.  
> The prize ficlets will be done at the author's discretion.

Lucy glanced at her arm and then cursed. It was a Wednesday. It was always on a Wednesday. Well, Thursday morning for her now. With a sigh she pulled the sleeves of her combat jacket down from their previously rolled position.

It wouldn’t do for anyone to see the marks.

Rolling some of the tension out of her shoulders Lucy resigned herself to having to wear her sleeves down for the duration of her tour overseas. She’d only been here a few days but already she was regretting biting her tongue when her father told her where she was going.

It would be a long six-months.

At least now she had a better idea of what time zone to search in.

A call of “Lieutenant!” broke her from her thoughts and she left her thoughts for later.

* * *

Maggie chugged a sports drink as she walked into the locker room. Throwing the empty drink into the rubbish bin as she passed Maggie paused upon catching her reflection in the mirror.

Oh. Right.

Wednesday night.

With a sigh she continued further into the locker room and began her post workout routine. Internally she debated how much she should hide the slowly forming marks. It was only her first week on the job, so her coworkers had yet to see her sleeveless, but Maggie had little doubt they would learn of her status at some point.

It was on her personal file after all.

Taken.

Bonded.

One of the “lucky”.

A soulmate.

The police academy had been grueling, but for the most part no one had made a fuss upon seeing her weekly marking. For the most part. She hoped things would be different here, but she wasn’t holding her breath.

She’d seen the cruelty of humanity first hand.

* * *

Alex half-heartedly batted away Kara’s over eager hands, attempting to fend off the marker without getting any ink on her. As always she failed. As usual she eventually gave in to Kara’s pout and surrendered her arm for drawing.

With a small smile Alex reached for the remote and focused on the movie as Kara drew.

The tradition had started shortly after Kara had found out Alex was one of the few with a confirmed soulmate. A rarity on Krypton and an uncommon trait on Earth, Kara had marveled at Alex having such a bond.

Especially one that transmitted through marking on the skin.

By the time Kara had arrived the marks Alex received from her soulmate were few and far between, as though they intentionally avoided writing on themselves. There have been several occasions of cuts and bruises showing up all across Alex’s form, but after logically examining them Alex was able to determine most of them came in a controlled fashion.

The controlled fashion of bruises on knuckles as well as across limbs.

Alex had tried to hide them from Kara but her sister could be devious when it suited her. Alex was thankful though, as Kara knowing meant a second opinion on the source of the bruises. All sorts of theories were presented that first week.

That Alex’s soulmate was a MMA fighter, or a soldier or police officer, or taught martial arts.

Any possibility except that her soulmate was being abused in some way Alex couldn’t prevent.


	2. Mystery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please ignore the "Chapter by DontBeJelly." It's ao3's default since DontBeJelly was the user who posted the chapter. After enough time, the real authors will be tagged and given proper credit.

Alex groaned when the sound of her alarm woke her up. She and Kara had fallen asleep on the couch again. She reached for her phone and tried to swipe the alarm off blindly. When that failed she cracked one eye open to glare at the phone and- “What the-!” 

Kara jolted awake when Alex fell off the couch, her phone’s alarm still ringing. “Alex wha- again?!”

Alex’s left hand was blue. Her right arm was two different shades of orange under Kara’s drawings from the night before. A quick glance down showed that one of her legs had a few purple spots. “It’s probably paint. Maybe my soulmate paints as a hobby.”

“That does not look like paint Alex. And what's this, the third time it happens overnight?”

“Uh, yeah.” Alex said, hoping her heartbeat wouldn't give her away. This was at least the tenth time she woke up with some part of her body tinted a weird color. Kara only knew of the times it happened during sister night because the colors always somehow faded after one or two hours. And it wasn’t always overnight. For the past two or three weeks, Alex could be in the middle of her morning run, or in line at a coffee shop, or doing literally anything else, and she’d notice her shoulder start turning green, or her leg going pink. And that was only what she’d been able to notice.

Weirdly, it never looked like her soulmate was washing the colors off. Rather it looked like they just faded or got absorbed. 

“Whatever it is,” Alex started, “it probably isn’t important. Come on, you may have super speed but I’m gonna be late for work if we don’t get moving.”

“Okay. Hey can I eat your cereal?”

“I was gonna-” a gust of wind interrupted Alex. “Nevermind,” she sighed, not bothering to look at her empty cupboard or her open window. She really had to hurry. Mr. Lord was already enough of a pain even when all of his employees were on time.

* * *

Maggie walked up to the counter when the barista called her name. She reached out to pick up her coffee and cursed. Her left hand was green, and her right arm was two different shades of red. She wouldn’t be surprised to find even more colors under her clothes.

At least it looked like her soulmate was finally washing yesterday’s drawings off. Those were confusing enough on their own. Aerial views of impossible places, landscapes of cities that didn’t exist anywhere in the world, weird symbols that looked almost like writing. Except it couldn’t be actual writing, since the universe had apparently declared soulmates couldn’t communicate by sending words or numbers to each other. Otherwise Maggie would have already told her soulmate to quit drawing or painting in hard to cover places like her hands or face.

Pensively, Maggie picked up her coffee and rubbed her left thumb over her right arm. For a moment she could almost swear the colors had a  _ texture _ . Something oily and cold when she rubbed them together. But that was impossible. 

Right?

* * *

Lucy started swearing under her breath as soon as the bathroom door closed behind her.

The meeting was going terrible. All those old white men acting like anything Lucy said was useless just because she was the one who said it. Then someone else would turn around and say the same thing in slightly different words, and not only would everyone praise them for the idea, but then they would look at HER and tell her she could learn a few things from whichever asshole had stolen her words. 

The worst of them were the two scientists. They were just as patronizing and arrogant as all the others, but they also gave Lucy a very bad feeling almost every moment of the two months they’d been working with her. 

Drs. Jeremiah D. and E. Hamilton kept asking weird questions, having information they shouldn’t, and worse, they seemed to have an awful lot of closed-door meetings with her father.

With a sigh that was just shy of turning into a growl, Lucy took off her jacket to cool down a little and went to wash her face. A look at her right wrist showed her soulmate seemed to be washing off the weird drawings just then. The close-up drawings of treetops, rooftops, and other hard to reach locations made Lucy wonder if maybe her soulmate owned a drone or maybe a high-res camera. Thankfully, the weird symbols had stopped several weeks back, and her soulmate never drew on their hands or face, so Lucy could keep quiet the fact that they existed by wearing a jacket everywhere. Annoying as that got in the summer.

With one last sigh and a quick look at her watch, Lucy put her jacket back on and steeled herself to go back to the meeting. 

As she walked out of the bathroom, she wondered what was more infuriating. The way everyone in the room always tried to patronize her, or how they always stopped talking whenever she walked in.

Her head held high, Lucy walked back into the meeting trying to ignore the bad feeling that had been with her since the first day of her tour. 

She still had a job to do.


	3. Adventure

_ Let’s go try to find your soulmates!  _ Kara had said.

_ It’ll be fun!  _ She said.  _ The greatest adventure ever! _

Alex had grumbled and glared, but ultimately given in when Kara launched a set of puppy dog eyes at her. Much to their mother’s amusement, Alex held  _ that _ to be Kara’s real super powers; the flying, super strength, and heat vision were just bonuses. 

Which was how Alex found herself sitting in Noonan’s on a Saturday morning. Between her and Kara’s encyclopedic knowledge of National City eateries, they had managed to pin down the general location of Alex’s soulmates. 

Alex tried not to focus on the writing on her right arm and hand. Instead, she chose to scowl at her coffee. Unfortunately, that did little to help because now all she could think about was the writing.

_ Red eye, four shots.  _ One of her soulmates had a caffeine habit worse than she did. 

Alex’s nose wrinkled in memory when she tried the drink. The bitterness of four shots of espresso made her tongue twist so hard, a part of her feared it would leave her mouth. It had taken half a dozen sticky buns and Kara’s overly sweet coffee to drive the taste from her mouth. 

The memory of all the sweets she had to consume drew Alex’s thoughts to the other set of writing.

_ Americano, SyMlk, c6h12o6.  _ Her other soulmate was either lactose intolerant or just didn’t like regular milk. They were also a person after Alex’s own heart, if the chemical formula for sugar was anything to go by.

The door chimed. Alex sat up a little straighter at the noise to see who had walked in. She and Kara both listened for the drink order.

_ “Can I get a mocha with extra whip cream?” _

Alex slunk back down in her seat.

“Maybe the next person?” Kara tried. 

Alex bit back an exasperated sigh. “Kara, we’ve been to every coffee shop in National City within a ten mile radius, and no one’s come in and made those orders,” she said. “For all we know, they could’ve only been here on business and aren’t even in the  _ state _ anymore.”

“A three month long business trip?” Kara asked, eyebrow raised. It was an uncharacteristic move that always made her look older, always reminded Alex that her ‘sister’ was, chronologically, decades older.

This time, Alex couldn’t hold back her sigh. Instead of answering Kara, she reached for her coffee and took a sip, silently mulling over what she knew.

Fact: her soulmates were either MMA fighters, cops, soldiers, or taught people how to fight.

Fact: her soulmates were creatures of habit, always ordering the same drinks day in and day out.

“It was easier when it was just bruises and colours splotches,” Alex grumbled into her coffee. 

It had been years since either had shown up on her skin. Coffee orders and other written down tidbits were a nice change, especially for the part of her brain that was ready to throw down at a moments notice to defend the people she cared about, but another part of her missed the colours and bruises. After her father had died, bruises and colours on her skin reminded her that she was alive, even if her father wasn’t.

Kara made a noise of sympathy.

Alex tossed back the rest of her coffee. She ignored the door chiming as she set her cup back down.

“I’m gonna get another cup, you want anything?” she asked.

“I’m good,” Kara said.

Alex nodded and went towards the bar. She grinned at Janice the barista, who just shook her head.

“I worry about your caffeine consumption sometimes, Danvers,” Janice said. “Another of the usual?”

“Yeah, caffe macchiato with an extra shot,” Alex said just as the words,  _ “Americano with soy milk and some sugar, please”  _ and  _ “Red eye, four shots,”  _ reached her ears.

Alex froze, hand still in her pocket to grab her wallet to pay. A quick glance left and right out of the corners of her eyes revealed that the women next to her were also frozen. At Janice’s confused and concerned look, Alex took a steadying breath. She gave Janice an easy grin and paid, before quickly retreating to the pick up counter.

Alex leaned against the creamer cart. She kept her eyes straight ahead and drummed her fingers against the wood. To anyone else watching, it would’ve looked absentminded, nonsensical even. 

**.- …. …- .-. .. --. . …. - …. --.. . -..**

A coffee cup clattering against a table told her that Kara had heard her message loud and clear.

The woman came up next to her. Alex made sure to face neutral as she eyed them discreetly. One was dressed in jeans and a leather jacket tailored just right. The other wore what Alex vaguely recognised as the army service uniform. The navy blue bars on her shoulders told Alex that the woman was a lawyer, and a major. 

Unfortunately for Alex, the woman in the leather jacket noticed the examination. She flashed a grin at her, dimples appearing full force. It made Alex’s stomach flip.

“See something you like?”

Alex sputtered as her hand slipped from the cart and grunted when her elbow smashed against the wood.

The army major snorted.

_ “Caffe macchiato, extra shot for Danvers! Americano with soy for Sawyer! And a red eye, four shots for Lane!” _

“I, uh,” Alex stammered out.

“I got it,” the major told both women. She quirked an eyebrow at the two of them. Alex’s stomach flipped again. “You two grab a table?”

“Course,” Leather Jacket said, saving Alex from having to respond. “Back corner good?”

“Works for me,” was the major’s nonchalant response before she left to pick up their orders.

Leather Jacket glanced at Alex. “Good for you too?”

“Yeah.” Never mind that she already had a table. Alex turned her attention back to the cart. “You grab it, I’ll meet you there, I just have to grab some sugar and stuff.”

“Okay.”

Alex rested her hands against the wood.

**.-. .-. --- … ….**

She quickly grabbed a handful of sugar and napkins and turned around just in time to see Kara walk right past her. There was a half a second of eye contact between the sisters before Alex gave her sister a small nod. Kara hummed quietly and left the shop just as the major came up to where Alex was still standing.

“Caffe macchiato for you,” she said, shifting so that Alex could take the aforementioned drink from her.

“Thanks.” Alex rested her fingers just above the sleeve of the cup, letting the heat burn at her fingertips to ground her.

The major hummed. She shuffled the drinks around so that she was now holding one in each hand.

“Shall we go join Mrs. Americano with soy milk?”

Alex bit back a small chuckle. Looked like the major had a sense of humor. “Sure.”

It wasn’t hard to spot Leather Jacket. She had set herself up in a corner towards the back. The sun shining through the windows close by appeared to make her glow.

_ Hot damn.  _

The two made their way over. The major tucked herself into the corner so that her back was to the wall. The way her eyes swept the coffee shop made it clear to Alex that it wasn’t so much because she felt threatened, but because she was readying herself to defend. Leather Jacket was in the seat across from the major so Alex took the outside seat. 

“Sooo…” Leather Jacket drew out. “I guess introductions are in order.”

“Probably a good idea,” the major said wryly. She took a sip of her red eye. “Who goes first?”

Leather Jacket leaned back in her seat. “Guess I can,” she said. She flashed a warm smile at the two of them. “Maggie Sawyer, NCPD Science Division, recent transfer from Gotham.”

Alex and the major both nodded.  _ A cop.  _ So Alex’s guesses hadn’t been entirely off. It just happened that  _ both  _ of her soulmates were involved in professions that required getting physical.

Alex tightened her grip around coffee cup to center herself before introducing herself.

“Alex Danvers, FBI,” she said smoothly.

Leather Jacket, Maggie, groaned. “No way, a fed?” she complained, but the way her eyes twinkled told Alex that she was joking around.

Alex smirked at her. She reached into her jacket for her badge. There was a brief moment of panic in her mind, but she pushed it aside as she held her fingers against the sensor hidden inside the leather. Mostly certain that her badge now read FBI instead of DEO, Alex pulled it out.

“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,” she challenged.

Maggie laughed and easily pulled her badge from her belt in response. The insignia of the NCPD flashed to Alex and the major.

“Not bad, Sawyer,” Alex said and stowed her badge before turning her attention to the major, who, up until that point, had just been watching the two of them.

The major sighed. “Major Lucy Lane,” she introduced herself. “U.S. Army, JAG, if we’re going to be introducing branches.”

“Lane?” Alex raised an eyebrow at her. “Like Lois Lane?” What were the chances?

Neither Maggie or Alex missed how Lucy cringed at the question.

“She’s my sister,” Lucy told them.

Alex appraised her. “Huh. Never would’ve thought,” she said. She grinned at Lucy. “You’ve got a much better jaw than she does.”

There was a hum of agreement from Maggie. “For real. Not gonna lie, Lois Lane’s attractive but you...hot damn,” Maggie said.

A red flush crept up the back of Lucy’s neck as she cleared her throat. “So, where do we go from here?”

Alex exchanged looks with Maggie, who shrugged in response. Alex turned her attention back to Lucy and shrugged as well.

“I dunno, take it day by day?” she suggested. “Treat it like an adventure.”

“An adventure?” Lucy questioned wryly.

“Why not?” Alex asked. “I mean, it’s not like any of us know what we’re doing, right?”

A thoughtful frown appeared on Maggie’s face. “Not really, no,” she admitted.

“We didn’t cover this at the Academy or at law school, so nope,” Lucy said.

Alex nodded. “So, adventure it is.”

“Well,” Lucy shifted so that she was relaxed against the wall. “What do you have in mind for the start of this adventure?”

Alex lifted her coffee. “Coffee’s a great start, don’t you think?” She eyed Lucy’s red eye. “Someone needs to broaden your horizons regarding what to drink, Lane.”

Lucy scoffed. “Best drink ever, this one,” she defended. 

“I’m as addicted to caffeine as the next cop,” Maggie said. “And even I can’t drink what you drink.”

“Word.” Alex motioned her cup towards Maggie in agreement.

Lucy scowled at the two of them. “Assholes,” she grumbled out.

Alex snorted into her coffee while Maggie just laughed.

“I have a feeling we’re gonna grow on you, Lane,” Maggie said. 

“Like fungus,” Lucy said dryly and took a pointed sip of her red eye.

“Hey, fungus can be loveable,” Alex protested.

“Nerd,” both Lucy and Maggie said together.

Alex just pouted. Her soulmates were assholes. And she had a feeling she was going to enjoy them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The morse code used in this chapter is in kryptonian. The translations, roughly, are these:
> 
> Ahvrigehth zhedh. Means "found them"
> 
> Rrosh: move


	4. Urban Fantasy

Lucy stretched, back arching off the bed. Alex had opened the windows when she had gotten out of bed, and the square of warmth settled on her bare skin.

Fingers traced over her stomach, brushing against the fold of the blanket draped across Lucy’s hips.

Leaving an oily trail.

Lucy propped herself onto her elbows.

“What’s up with your hand?”

Maggie froze, lifted her hand.

Turquoise skin. A slight sheen in the light.

“Damnit,” Maggie muttered. She sat up.

Lucy eyed, then gently trailed a finger over the purple splotch wrapped around her hip. Unless Alex had gotten into a fight with some paint in the bathroom, there was no reason for the coloring. “What is that?”

Maggie shrugged with one shoulder. “Don’t know, started a few months ago.”

Lucy sat up, gently pulled Maggie’s hand into her lap. She squinted, pulled her thumb along the splotchy edge, trailed her finger through the oil. She rubbed her fingers together, staring at the substance.

The bathroom door opened.

Alex stepped out, orange covering her shoulder, blue peeking out from beneath her boxers. She eyed them both.

“So, this isn’t because either of you are secretly painters?” she asked.

Lucy’s stomach turned. “I might know a way to figure out.”

* * *

Maggie raised a hand, no longer blue, then pulled it back before touching the foliage covered wall. “Where are we?”

Lucy didn’t answer. She stared at the vines, brushing her fingers over leaves before plucking one out.

On Lucy’s other side, Alex threw Maggie a confused look. Maggie shrugged, then stumbled back as the wall vanished.

“What the fuck?” Alex murmured.

Maggie’s eyes went wide.

She had worked this beat for nearly a year, and had never seen the neighborhood opening up before her. The townhouses looked like they had been built of adobe, trimmings painted in various pastels. Wires holdings flags and strung up toys and paper creations crossed over the packed dirt path between the buildings.

“Aliens aren’t the only ones hiding from humans,” Lucy said, stepping through the opened arch.

Maggie stared at the new path. Alex leaned towards her.

“You feel like Harry Potter walking into Diagon Alley the first time, too?” she murmured.

Maggie nodded. “Where are we?” she asked Lucy again.

“Centelazul,” Lucy said. “Magic community.”

“Magic?” Alex asked. “Are you saying magic is real?”

“You have an alien sister,” Lucy deadpanned. She smiled and waved at an elderly woman waving from inside a plant filled winder.

“How do you know about this place?” Maggie asked.

A squad of laughing children ran past them. At least half of them didn’t look human or any alien species Maggie knew.

Lucy smirked over at her. “That would be telling.” She turned, led them into one of the townhouses, one with soft purple trimmings. A sigil was burnt into the top corner of the door.

“Lucinda!”

Alex snorted. Maggie looked around, taking in the interior as a woman pulled Lucy into a hug.

A flat screen hung on the wall, over an aged wooden trunk. A cabinet full of trinkets sat in one corner. What looked like an aged wedding picture of the woman and another hung next to a large window.

“You need to not stay away so much,” the woman said.

“I’ll try harder, Erendira,” Lucy said.

“But, what brings you in today?” She glanced towards Maggie and Alex. “Your meollo?”

Lucy nodded. “There’s a problem.”

Maggie glanced towards Alex, who was looking back at her, confused.

“We have a soul leak,” Lucy said.

Erendira narrowed her eyes, leaned forward. “You, Lucy. You have a soul leak.”

Maggie watched as Lucy shrunk into herself, then nod.


	5. Magical Realism

Three weeks in, and they were no closer to solving it. Alex and Maggie were stuck wearing long sleeves in summer (not that much of a hardship when leather jackets were involved, moreso during a workout) and Lucy was forbidden to go barefoot in the apartment. 

“We’ll never get out deposit back!”

“I don’t know,” Maggie said as she knelt down next to the bed. “I think it’s cute.”

“There’s nothing cute about being a walking Disney princess,” Lucy grumbled, small vines poking out of the back of her slippers. 

Alex wrinkled her nose. “Keep the thorns to a minimum, hm?”

“You’ll be my only target,” Lucy sang sweetly. She stepped carefully through the bedroom crowded with the wardrobes of three women, careful not to touch the furniture… or anything else. She stopped by the window, where the one plant Maggie had left in Alex’s care over a 48 hour shift was barely hanging on. 

She glanced over her shoulder. 

Alex and Maggie were still getting themselves together. 

It was worth a shot. 

Lucy poked at the poor orchid, sad, dry and yet somehow waterlogged in a way only Alex could manage. The leaf seemed to blink, new colors almost dripping down the leaf, to the stem, spreading through the sad little plant. It almost seemed to stand up on its own, proud and tall once more. As it reached its full height, the color seemed to swirl and drain back into Lucy’s finger. 

“Holy shit.”

“What are you doing with my flower, Lane?”

“Nothing worse than Alex.”

“Worse than Alex would be to throw it out the window.”

“I am  _ not that bad! _ ”

“You really are,” Lucy disagreed. 

“Get your coffee and get out.”

“That’s not a good way to talk to your girlfriend.”

“I have two, I’ll live.”

Maggie poked at Lucy, face close but not quite touching. “My orchid’s alive.”

“It is.”

“You touched it?”

“I did.”

“Maggie! Did you leave the coffee off the burner?”

“Shit.” Maggie shot Lucy a guilty look. “I’m sorry?”

“It’s cold?”

Maggie paused. “Really? It’s only been like 30 minutes?”

Lucy made a face. “Gross.”

She trotted after Maggie, a little more spring in her step. She watched with interest as Maggie walked over to Alex and the cup that she was pouting at. 

Maggie took the mug of coffee into her hands and sipped at it. She made a face. “Your coffee is as awful as always, Danvers.”

“It’s cold!”

“No?” Maggie offered the cup with a curious tilt of her head. 

Alex took it back and stared at it, the slightest bit of steam coming off her mug. “What the fuck?”

Alex set her mug down and grabbed another. She poured the last of the coffee into it and shoved it at Lucy. “Here, I hate this mug.”

“Fuck you, Danvers.” Lucy took it anyway, a slight swirl of color tinting the handle. She sipped at it, and spit it out. “That’s cold.”

Maggie took it from her and drained it. “Was not. Stop messing with me, I need to get to work.”

Lucy and Alex took their kiss to the cheek and watched her go. The door closed with a  _ click _ , and they turned almost as one to share an odd look. 

“Alex-”

“Kara’s calling.”

“What? No she’s-”

Alex’s phone rang.

Lucy sighed. She rolled her eyes and turned back to the bedroom. She tripped over one of Alex’s boots and knocked her hand against the dresser, catching herself with the other. She pulled her hands away and smirked. 

Handprints on the dresser facing the mirror?

Those she was leaving. 

She didn’t even feel guilty about that set. 


	6. Science Fiction

Lucy was certain they’d lost the deposit on the apartment. As time progressed she discovered more and more… talents. Alex insisted in dragging her into the DEO to test her new found abilities.

She could revive and grow plants and nature up to small trees. Alex had brought in the Christmas tree their neighbour had dumped outside of their apartment building after new year that had been wilting away for a couple of weeks. It was well beyond saving but Lucy had had it flourishing within moments.

So they had lost the deposit on the apartment, but Lucy was rapidly gaining abilities. 

So rapidly that she was having trouble controlling them.

“Jesus Christ, Luce!” Alex shouted as she ducked out of the way of a rolling wave of water. 

“Sorry!” Lucy winced. The water dissipated as quickly as it appeared, leaving the training room floor as dry as it had been all day. 

“I asked for a wave, not a tsunami.” 

Lucy shrugged. “Isn’t a tsunami technically a wave?”

Alex scowled.

“Do you think it’s time we went back to see Erendira?” Maggie asked from up on the walkway, attempting to quell her smirk over Alex’s soggy pants that somehow stayed wet despite the rest of the room being bone dry. 

Lucy shook her head. “She won’t have much more than she did a month ago.”

“Where are we supposed to find an answer for this then?” Alex asked. She had a sour look on her face as she tugged off one of her boots and dumped the water out onto the floor, only to watch it evaporate into thin air. Lucy snickered.

“You aren’t getting anywhere with your tests?”

Alex shook her head.

“Well,” Maggie shrugged. “We just keep trying.

* * *

Just keep trying, they found out, was a lot harder than expected.

Alex buried herself in research and experiments, and the only true progress she made was having Lucy accidentally turn her lab into a Jackson Pollock exhibit. 

Maggie did her best to help out. She asked around her contacts on the street and in the alien community to see if any of their cultures had more information than the humans did, but to no avail. 

Kara had even flown to the Fortress to see if her parents holograms had anything to say, but everything turned up a dead end. 

That was until the DEO received word from Argo City. 

The land mass pinged on the radar before Alura’s message came through, and not even Alex could stand between Kara and the only space worthy vessel the DEO had on hand. 

She flew out to meet them, and returned not long later with Alura on board. When greetings and pleasantries were out of the way, Alura quickly noticed the exhaustion and tension marring the group of women. 

“Lucy has a soul leak.” Kara explained. Alura looked over at Lucy with curious eyes, tracing down the colour splashed skin. 

“A soul leak?” She asks, and there’s a spark of knowledge behind her eyes that have all three women leaning forward nodding. 

“We can’t figure it out.” Alex shrugs helplessly. Alura reaches for Lucy, pausing to ask permission with her eyes before picking up her hand. She smiles up at Lucy, then at Alex, and finally at Kara. She says something in Kryptonian, and it sparks recognition in Kara’s eyes.

“But there was no record at the Fortress?”

Alura nods, somewhat sadly. “We had not completed the research by the time Krypton died. It was not a high enough priority to have made it into the databases.”

Kara mirrors Alura’s sad smile. More Kryptonian words are passed between them, seemingly of comfort, before Lucy has to interrupt.

“So… can you fix it? Can it be stopped?”

Alura turns back to Lucy. “Not stopped.. But harnessed.”

“Harnessed?”

Alura nods. “We continued the research in Argo City. The… leak can be harnessed and used in a similar way to how our powers work on this planet.” 

Alex’s eyes go wide, and Lucy finds herself speechless too. It’s Maggie, hanging back from the console, that manages to speak. “Powers?”

“Yes.” Alura frowns. “Though I worry about the applications of our technology to human bodies. It does not only harness what is already flowing, but creates a space for it to flow freely. To maximise the abilities. As you said, at the moment it is only a leak. Imagine the consequences when the energy is allowed to flow freely.”

Lucy gulps, casting her eyes downwards at the implication. This soul leak, or whatever Kara and Alura had begun calling it, could be dangerous. Maggie appears beside her, wrapping an arm around her waist and squeezing. Her hand meets Lucy’s skin where her shirt had been riding up, and bright orange swirls across her fingertips. Maggie doesn’t seem to mind. Alex shuffles over to her other side to take her hand, purple climbing up her arm. 

“There isn’t a way to create a valve?” Alex asks.

Alura cocks her head to the side, brow furrowed. “In a singular being? Not that I have heard of.”

Lucy’s shoulders sag. Alex and Maggie tighten their hold on her.

“But there may be a way to share the burden across the soul bond.”

“How do you mean?” Alex says, in what Lucy likes to call her science voice. She can perfectly picture her little frowny face, and her little pout without even looking up.

“Kryptonian bodies are generally able to contain the energy of an agitated soul, of a leak, but we conducted research in Argo for circumstances where a body would not be able to contain it.” 

“We’ll try anything.” Maggie murmurs, and Alex and Lucy nod along with her.

“Kara,” Alura turns to her daughter. “Perhaps you could show me the Fortress. This is best conducted there. I will send for any materials we need from Argo City.”

Kara nods, already talking a mile a minute about flying arrangements, and how excited she is to show her mother the fortress, but Lucy can only focus on her soulmates, on what might possibly be the first hint of a solution. 

Alex ends up flying with Kara. Maggie decides to fly with Alura, and leave Lucy in J’onn’s strong, capable and more comforting hands. Not too long later and the six of them are entering the fortress together.

It’s cold, as the arctic should be. But Lucy finds herself warm, on the verge of sweating even. 

Kara leads Alura, and subsequently the rest of them through the fortress to a lab of sorts. A few moments later a couple more Kryptonians arrive with the materials that Alura had sent for. With only a few pointers from Kara about where to find things, she sets to work with a familiar look of concentration on her face.

Lucy leans into Kara. “You look like her.” 

Kara’s dazzling smile lights up the room. And Alex’s warm look towards her almost starts melting the ice around them. 

They watch Alura for a little while as she moves around the room with a crinkle in her brow. Alex tries to watch for as long as she can, fascinated by the science. But hours in her eyes start to droop, and Maggie and Lucy convince her into one of the sleeping chambers.

“Fine.” Alex yawns. “But I’m not tired.”

“Of course not.” Maggie placates as lies down beside Alex, leaving a Lucy sized gap between them and gesturing for her to climb in. “Come on, we need our space heater.” 

Lucy rolls her eyes. And then groans. “If this keeps up, sleepover night with Kara is going to be hell. She already runs hot enough for all three of us.”

She climbs in, settling between the two of them, and lets out a content sigh. Maggie drapes her arm over the both of them and kisses Lucy’s shoulder. 

“It’ll be okay. Alura sounds like she knows how to solve this.” She mumbles into Lucy’s skin, already halfway asleep.

And as sleep starts to take Lucy as well, she sighs again. “God I hope so.”


	7. Horror

Lucy, Alex, and Maggie experience a balance of power once Alura was done. Now that the extra power was being shared equally, they all had access to a little bit of magic. Plants no longer sprouted everywhere Lucy stepped, and the dye jobs on various body parts came to an end. Lucy still had the ability to heal plants. Maggie found it was easiest for her to manipulate temperature. Alex could now more a little faster than before, which gave her an advantage over the Kryptonian stomach in her sister.

They hadn’t started testing their abilities with other kinds of magic when the nightmares start.

Something in the darkness of their minds chased them, hunted them. Unseen but just behind them, breathing cold, corpse-smelling air on their necks. They wake up screaming every time.

It only takes four nights before they return to Centelazul. Erendira is happy to see them, and even more pleased to see how they managed to balance their bond. 

“The three of you look absolutely radiant.” Erendira’s smile faded. “But something is wrong. You look exhausted.”

“We can’t sleep,” Lucy said. “There’s always something in our dreams. It’s chasing us in the dark.”

“When I try to turn and look at it, I just wake up screaming,” Alex said, slightly annoyed at herself but also wary of what’s causing her to wake up rather than face her fear.

“I always have to brush my teeth afterward,” Maggie said with a grimace. “I always wake up with the smell of dead body in the back of my throat.”

That seemed to be the clue Erendira need. “It seems your bond is too strong. It’s become a beacon for those who dwell in the neverwheres and nowheres.”

Alex frowned. “How can something exist nowhere?”

“Think of it as the place the monsters go when they aren’t under the bed.”

“Wait. Those are real?” Maggie asked.

Erendira nodded. “Yes. Although, they have to be invited. Children who never say, “There’s a monster under my bed,” never give them access.”

Lucy cleared her throat, trying to suppress that particular childhood memory. “Back to the monsters in our heads.”

“The three of you had help with this new balance, yes?” When Erendira got a round of nods, she said, “Then you must forge a new bond by yourselves. You have to learn how to find each other in your unconscious. Only together will you be able to stop the Old Ones from using your souls as a gateway into our world.”

“Old Ones?” Lucy asked. “They don’t have a name?” 

“We do not give name to such things. It allows them to listen.”

When they returned home, they sat in a heap on the couch. Tangled together, exhausted yet content to just be with each other, they started to doze off. It was Lucy who reached out with her mind, looking for the steady heat of Maggie’s presence. After a few frustrating minutes, Lucy loosened the muscle in her neck and focused instead with the sense of contentment in her heart.

There. That was easy.

“Luce?” Maggie murmured.

“Feel that?” Lucy kept her voice soft, not wanting to disturb their peace.

“Yea. That you?”

“Mhmm.”

Lucy gasped a little when she felt Maggie reach back. Feeling Maggie’s love for her in such a pure form made her want to cry.

Together, they searched for the low rumble that was Alex’s oncoming storm. 

Alex twitched when she felt something new along the part of her mind she deemed her “magic sense.” Except, it wasn’t new. It was Maggie. That was Lucy. Maggie was warm and Lucy was solid, both of them a steady presence. Alex herself sunk into their bones with the certainty that she was with them forever.

Entwined both physically and spiritually, they fell asleep.

For the first time in days, Maggie could see in her dreams. And she knew this was a dream. The world was fuzzy, nothing exact. Behind her, the sun was setting on a grassy plain. Before her was the cold maw of a pitch black cave.

Something from within roared.

Maggie reached out her hands, recalling how she felt on the couch. She pulled at everything, urging Lucy and Alex to join her, to find her. Suddenly, Alex rumbled somewhere deep in Maggie’s ribcage and Lucy made the ground seem solid under her feet. Even better, they stood beside her.

Alex gagged. “That fucking reeks!”

“Welcome to my nightmare,” Maggie drawled.

The darkness seemed to grow. The sky became the ceiling of the cave. 

“When the sun sets, be ready,” Lucy warned.

“How are we even gonna fight this thing?” Alex demanded. 

“We have one weapon the Old Ones can never wield.”

Alex sighed. “You’re gonna say “love”, aren’t you?”

Lucy nodded. “I am.”

Maggie nudged Alex. “Love is the perfect weapon. It’s the heat between us when we’re together and the fire that keeps us warm when the other two aren’t next to us, right? So that’s how we’re gonna fight fight.”

Alex smirked. “We burn it out of existence.”

The last sliver of sun slipped below the horizon.

The darkness, for all it was solid, shifted. It made their eyes twitch. The hair on their arms stood on end. Death filled the air. Some ancient instinct made their knees shake.

Alex tightened her grip on Maggie’s hand. Maggie squeezed Lucy’s fingers. A spark flared to life in front of them. Knowing they were unstoppable, they encouraged the fire to grow.


End file.
